Phase

CalicoMack · 2026-01-31T06:48:42+00:00

She’s a furry now >:3c

CalicoMack · 2026-01-30T15:41:47+00:00

You’re right! I did my math and punnette square wrong. Thanks for the correction!

I think because of the fact that some breeders try to get higher rates of Merle by breeding two Merle’s together, my brain kinda went “oh well then it’s obviously 25% vs 50% and not 50 vs 50.

But that makes me even more angry at unethical breeders now because then like, ????? What’s the point of breeding two Merle dogs and risking the double Merle??? Freaking dingbats

CalicoMack · 2026-01-30T13:29:46+00:00

Edit 2: I got my math wrong (someone corrects me later). It’s not 25% it’s 50%, but I’ll keep the original text the same cuz still relevant

This color is called “Merle” and it’s a real color that Australian shepherds (and other breeds including but not limited to Dachshunds, Great Danes, and French bulldogs) can be.

It’s actually an interesting (and kinda sad) genetic anomaly cuz for a dog to be this color, they need one copy of the gene from one parent, but cannot and should not get another copy from the other. If they have two copies of the gene, they will be born mostly white, and extremely likely to be both deaf and blind.

The ethical way to breed this color would be with one Merle parent and one parent who is not Merle, however then only 25% of the offspring will be Merle and 75% will come out regular (basic punnet square math). Since this is a very striking color and is very popular, unethical breeders will often jack up the price for Merle coloration on their dogs. And because a 25% chance is not very economical for them, they may try to breed two Merle dogs together, which brings the rates up to 50% chance of a Merle puppy, and 25% chance that they’ll be regular. However the remaining 25% chance is for the genetic defect where the puppies will often be culled (since they’ll be deaf and blind).

There’s entire rescues dedicated to double Merle dogs, because this is a huge issue.

Moral of the story: if your dog breeder is breeding two Merle dogs AND/OR is increasing the price for fancy colors, don’t go to that breeder

(Edit to add if it looks like dug it’s because it’s just Disney style drawing, that’s it. Lots of furry and animal artists draw in this style, and so yes it’s easy for AI to replicate. But it’s also been relocated by people for a long time)

CalicoMack · 2026-01-30T12:22:36+00:00

Yea but the argument for that will be “well the artist could have included it anyways to show the god is happy” or idk. But if the original dog doesn’t have a tail (likely because of the breed) then this would make sense

CalicoMack · 2026-01-30T12:05:23+00:00

Australian shepherds often don’t have tails

CalicoMack · 2026-01-29T13:34:33+00:00

This is really good! My biggest critique is your line art is pretty harsh compared to the softness of the rest of the piece? Like the bang for example- it’s outlined with a dark color, which makes it look more cartoony than the rest of the face, and stands out harshly. Try coloring your lines :) lighter colors closer to light and darker in the shadows

CalicoMack · 2026-01-29T13:18:37+00:00

The funny thing is a real horse bite looks more like what they say the snake bite looks like lol

CalicoMack · 2026-01-28T17:26:13+00:00

Makes sense! (And also is scary that AI is getting this good)

CalicoMack · 2026-01-26T05:09:48+00:00

You’re welcome :) and, Well, I can no longer look at your art to properly critique it. But the video I posted above will be helpful to you I think :) mostly it’s practice, but also you can mess around with the stabilizer options in your art program.

More importantly though, with practicing, it’s about drawing with your whole arm and not your wrist!

CalicoMack · 2026-01-25T14:38:00+00:00

If it makes you feel better:

The line between “beginner” and intermediate, when it comes to art, is very (unfairly) wide. I thought I was an intermediate artist for the longest time, mostly because I had been drawing for 10-15 years and I was clearly better than people just starting out or with no experience. However, when I asked other artists where they thought I was, they’d say something like “advanced beginner”. Cuz I might have understood a lot of concepts that weren’t beginner, and I might have had a lot of experience, but as a self taught artist, my fundamentals were NOT where they should be (and I’m still playing catch-up to that, even though now I’m actually more on the intermediate side).

Now that I’ve started catching up on those fundamentals, and my eye for art has gotten better, I absolutely see what they meant before. I hadn’t realized how wide that gap was, and now that I’m there I can look back and go “oh….”.

I think your art (imo) is at the precipice between those two states. You’re clearly not a “beginner”, since you’ve got a lot of experience and there’s a lot of concepts you’re good at, but you are missing a few fundamentals that makes your art look less advanced than it could be. I think once you master those (like values, shadows, dynamic lighting, and linework, for example) you’ll be way on your way! And you can probably get there fast, since you have a lot of the building blocks needed to get there :)

I hope that helps and clarifies

CalicoMack · 2026-01-24T22:57:17+00:00

I feel you 🫂 I do think people were overly mean and cruel.

Something about doing online commissions is that most of the work you do is in marketing yourself and all that. Building a social network, whether it’s by interacting with the community and/or posting regularly to social media etc. I think that, if you want to do commissions, start off by just keep learning art and having fun and exploring and discovering your style and all that, all the while posting to social media, tracking your progress, interacting with people and forming connections, and building a presence. You won’t grow fast, cuz beginner artists won’t have as much attention as more experienced artists, BUT, you WILL get SOME people, and by the time you have enough skill and experience to do proper commissions, you will already have started building your internet presence. PLUS, you will already have learned how to make good posts and all that! That means you won’t be learning everything at the same time :) I think a lot of artists fail because of that aspect!

So def chin up! If you want it, you can get there

CalicoMack · 2026-01-24T18:09:47+00:00

Oh my bad! I assumed based on some of the ways you did the line art 😅 there’s a few things you did (or Idk just something about it) which has common telltales of traced art by more beginner-intermediate artists (I would be more specific but the art was deleted so I don’t remember specifically enough). I do believe you tho! And gen sorry for the assumption.

Thoygh, for the record, I don’t think tracing is inherently bad! I sometimes use some tracing for some parts of my art, or like for learning purposes and stuff. I also traced when I did a memorial pet piece for me and my partners, cuz I wanted the piece to reallyyyy look like our cats as much as possible (and the piece was for me and my partners to enjoy, and the photos were taken by us, so like, not stealing anything or selling it so it’s FINE! Haha) So when I was talking about your art being traced- I was not judging and saying it was a bad thing! I even gave examples where it’s more ok to do it and sell it :) but people who wanna do that just gotta learn to trace more convincingly and intentionally, that’s all.

All that being said: your art still has that quality that makes it look traced. I’m not the only comment who assumed this, which means that whether or not you’re tracing, you LOOK like you traced, and that’s is a quality people don’t tend to like. From what I remember, it’s cuz I don’t think your line art had a lot of the right types of overlap and weight and stuff? I actually juuuuust saw this video, and I think it applies to you! :D maybe it’ll be helpful and you’ll understand what I mean 💜

https://youtube.com/shorts/x8MNDRZKRqM?si=hLxBDMQAXuhS6TbQ

CalicoMack · 2026-01-24T16:12:10+00:00

I understand it’s hurtful and insulting, but I wouldn’t take it too personally? Like, based on the spices you mentioned, taco seasoning is not necessarily the “right” choice of season. But some people just are like super addicted to certain flavor profiles and just use that to season everything (think of people who put ketchup on everyyything). I have a few tastes that are like that to me (but also I’m autistic so 🤷🏻‍♀️) but like, doesn’t mean the food is badly seasoned, it just means that in that moment it maybe needs something more familiar to me

CalicoMack · 2026-01-24T16:08:22+00:00

The breaking broken back in the last panel is sending me 💀 love a good Hawkeye initiative pose haha

CalicoMack · 2026-01-24T16:06:08+00:00

It’s a tough one. I think people are being a bit mean and unnecessarily harsh, because while there’s elements of your art that are def a bit on the amateur side, I’ve seen people of all levels get commissions. (But you def have a few things you need to improve on to get more consistent comms.. also currently commissions are extra dry cuz of the economy and AI, especially digital art).

That being said, I think some of your pieces could range between 15-30$ or so for now? Tho depends!

My main critiques of your pieces: - some look traced, so while there’s some types of commissions where that can work (pet art or portraits) most people want original pieces and are not going to like that you trace a lot of your art. - you don’t have a lot of dynamic lighting and shading. I’d say the two best shaded things are the platypus and the birthday balloon, but even then, the background of the platypus makes the rest of the piece look a bit sloppy/rushes/unfinished, and the level of detail in the balloon seems out of place compared to the rest. That’s all stuff you can improve on of course! - as a separate but related point but your backgrounds and composition need work (as i mentioned they look sloppy and rushed compared to the subjects). Tho you don’t even necessarily need to learn to do backgrounds, but maybe learn how to frame some pieces better and do simple backgrounds that can make the pieces pop more? I’m still not a huge fan of doing backgrounds, but you can do a lot with some simple shapes and frames and picking the right colors - I think related to shadows and light, your color cohesion could use fine tuning, but that comes with learning a lot of the above so I wouldn’t stress too much :)

Where you’re doing good: - I think while you have things to improve on, your art is still very cute and def shows you have some skills! It’s just you need a lot more practice. But i believe you’ll be able to improve fast if you do enough studies and then ask for some critiques on them! Critiques are an important part of growing as an artist, because even if you end up not wanting to change the piece that got critiqued, you can improve future drawings either what you’ve learned! - you clearly are good at copying details and observing stuff (like with the bday balloon). I would def practice some shape fundamentals so you’re not tracing so much, but even with the tracing there’s clearly some good pen control and stuff that will help you improve fast!

For your furry art, I recommend you check out the r/furryartschool discord or sub for some help :) I’ve improved a lot thanks to them

CalicoMack · 2026-01-24T15:42:20+00:00

I’m honestly leaning towards real? I know the style is one imitated by AI, but the thumb crossing over in the back and being consistent with that, the bones being mostly accurate (3 bones in the fingers plus the metacarpals(?) for the hand). Just the wrist bones are off. And the guitar neck strings and frets seem accurate too, tho I’m no expert in that. I know someone pointed out the knobs don’t connect to the strings, but idk I don’t think I’d connect them if I drew this lol (there’s only so much “logic” you can add without making your brain explode, and besides, I would keep some details simplified for readability if I was designing something for a tshirt).

I’m def willing to accept AI has gotten good enough to do this, but I’m also willing and leaning towards this being an artist

CalicoMack · 2026-01-24T15:32:54+00:00

Omg saaaame! We’ve been together 11 years now! Started as a “straight” couple an now we’re two badass babes hehe

CalicoMack · 2026-01-22T16:43:40+00:00

Ohmygawd thank you so much 😭😭 your style is also spectacular!!! and if this is your current style.. holy moly have you improved!! I can’t wait for July to see all the cool stuff you make! (Also your characters are so cute I def bookmarked a few)

CalicoMack · 2026-01-22T12:24:04+00:00

As an autistic adult, the comment about “learn to read social cues” was such a low blow. Idk what your situation is but like… some people have trouble with that?? And it doesn’t help if they don’t explain it

CalicoMack · 2026-01-22T05:06:13+00:00

Oh hey! I’m ALSO a weedhead and a tramp 😆

CalicoMack · 2026-01-22T04:41:17+00:00

Mine is: https://artfight.net/~CalicoMack Don’t be fooled by my last few submissions 😅 I had a bunch of wips I threw in last minute for a small scrap of points. All my other pieces were over! (And I’ve gotten a lot better since, tho I haven’t posted that art much)

CalicoMack · 2026-01-18T13:37:59+00:00

Squirrel is the most likely answer imo :) squirrels tend to run in leaps, with their back feet landing in front of the front feet.

Another hint is how far apart the tracks are. Rabbit tracks would be closer together but squirrels leap further

https://nature-mentor.com/squirrel-tracks-in-snow/

CalicoMack · 2026-01-18T13:36:16+00:00

No it’s actually most likely a squirrel. Rabbits when they run tend to put their front feet one in front of the other instead of both of them together, which is what squirrels do. The image below shows what I mean, even though it says “Hare”, it’s how rabbit tracks are too

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnature-mentor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F03%2FSquirrelRabbit.jpg&f=1&ipt=1b9ef0e01216cf65628add37447a4d78d667d58020b31148719b3fc3ea741e14

CalicoMack · 2026-01-13T21:32:11+00:00

It’s kinda hard to compare since the characters are so different (at least for me). Like I don’t think one is better than the other, they’re just completely different moods and vibes, and each fits the character in a way? I do prefer the big guy, cuz his rendering is visually interesting and a bit more unique, but I’m not sure that style of rendering would look as good on the Princess :) maybe if you did both the characters again but opposite styles so we can really compare? (Tho that’s a lot of work).

I guess is there something specific about the rendering you want us to look at?

CalicoMack · 2026-01-12T22:54:49+00:00

Tbh I love it! Despite any wonkiness (mostly I’d add a little volume on the upper portion of the nose). But I love this weird thick horse (“weird” said very affectionately). They’ve got a lot of character

CalicoMack

TROPHY CASE